Exterior preventive maintenance can reduce major costs and equipment failures in the future
Marc Fischer, senior vice president and director of management services for Transwestern, has spent his entire career taking over buildings in various states of disrepair.
“We take over buildings all the time that have problems, and I can’t tell you how often buildings have not been maintained,” Fischer says. When building owners try to save money by not performing preventive maintenance, he says they often end up spending incredible amounts later because of premature equipment failure.
With a “pay-now-or-pay-later” mentality, owners and managers can spend pennies on the dollar for preventive maintenance, or spend up to eight dollars or more to do system replacement later, emphasizes Fischer.
“We took over a building in Maryland with a multiple-story parking garage that was so poorly maintained, it has to be torn down and rebuilt,” he explains. The concrete couldn’t be repaired or patched, and it has now become million dollar problem. Fischer estimates that maintaining a parking garage costs about five cents per square foot per year. “To replace it, we’re spending 10 times what it would have cost to maintain it,” he says.
Many building managers think of exterior maintenance as “out of sight, out of mind,” says Fischer, who is the author of BOMA’s new Exterior Maintenance Guidebook. But just because you can’t see a problem when you approach a building doesn’t mean it’s not there. Another parking garage Fischer worked with in Maryland needed its entire dry pipe sprinkler system replaced due to poor maintenance; the piping eroded to the point where it was thin enough to put a screwdriver through it. The problem could have been avoided, says Fischer, by opening the drip drum and draining water out of the pipes once a week. “That process would maybe take one hour a week vs. the few hundred thousand dollars it cost to replace the sprinkler pipe.”
Ignoring preventive maintenance may not only lead to higher costs down the road, but may also lead to compounding problems. Something that starts as a small repair can grow to be a much bigger issue if it isn’t addressed in time. Overlooking a small window leak, for example, can eventually cause mold, which leads to drywall repairs and mold removal services.
Exterior preventive maintenance covers everything from landscaping to roofing to exterior lighting and much more. Fischer offers some tips and guidelines on preventive maintenance for three important components of an exterior preventive maintenance program.
Does Predictive Maintenance Work for Building Exteriors?
Predictive maintenance is a strategy that uses statistics, measurement and experience to fine-tune service intervals so they match the needs of each piece of equipment. When does predictive maintenance work best? “If it has a moving part, there’s probably some predictiveness to making it work,” says Marc Fischer, senior vice president and director of management services for Transwestern.
“A manufacturer might know that a particular elevator part will last for 100,000 door openings,” says Fischer. “When that part gets to 90,000 door openings, the company will replace it before it gets to 100,000.” This method involves calculating the appropriate time for repair or replacement. Replace it too early and a part is thrown away with life still left in it; replace it too late and the elevator fails.
Group relamping is another example of predictive maintenance. Replacing lamps one at a time can be a never-ending process that becomes pricey in terms of time and efficiency. But based on information from the manufacturer, a building owner knows approximately when the lamps will fail. “If you organize it so your staff comes in on a weekend once every three years and replaces all the exterior lights, it’s a one-time cost that’s infinitely less expensive than replacing one lamp at a time,” says Fischer.
Building Envelope
If a tenant complains about water or pests in the building, an investigation should begin at the site of the failure. Responding reactively to those complaints is important, but equally as important is physically looking at the building exterior to prevent problems like those from occurring. Is there a crack in a window? Did the caulk joint between two bricks fail? Are the weep holes at the bottom of a window covered with debris? Preventive maintenance can help avoid issues like these, which can stop problems like moisture infiltration or pest invasion.
When performing preventive maintenance on your building envelope, you should:
- Check system components (like caulking) that have a predetermined lifecycle.
- Look for any water infiltration, deterioration, or movement (infrared testing or cutting probes in interior drywall sheathing can help with this).
- Look for openings where animals, rodents, or insects might be entering.
- Inspect weep holes to make sure they’re not clogged with dirt or insect nests.
- Make sure you can see drainage flashings at the edge of the exterior wall assembly.
Windows
Establishing a preventive maintenance program for your building’s windows goes hand-in-hand with maintenance for the building envelope, and can often be performed at the same time.
When performing preventive maintenance on your windows, you should:
- Check for condensation between glass panes (particularly on hot/cold days), which can signal a seal failure.
- Look for water infiltration and deterioration of caulking.
- Inspect weep holes and make sure they’re not blocked by debris.
- Check for any window stains (these might be noticed after a window washing, when occupants might see foggy patches or spotting/streaking on the windows).
- Schedule a window cleaning at least biannually.
Window cleaning is frequently overlooked as part of the maintenance plan. As a result, dirt can become etched into the glass and can’t be scrubbed away. “Dirt chemically adheres to the glass surface,” says Fischer. “In order for that window to look clear again, you have to polish it with a pumice stone to get the etching off.” Fischer points out that the pumice stone work costs 10 times more than the cost of a window cleaning.
Exterior Lighting
Keeping your exterior lighting in good working order helps with safety and security around the building, reduces light pollution, and also keeps energy expenses in check. “There are footcandle standards, and any lighting contractor, lighting consultant, or manufacturer’s rep will go to a property and create a matrix of footcandle ratings all around the property to check light levels,” says Fischer. This matrix can identify problems with exterior lighting, such as like making sure the lighting between two poles overlaps so there isn’t a dark spot between them.
Dirty lenses can lead to a significant reduction in light levels, so cleaning them is an important part of a maintenance strategy. If the parking lot isn’t lit as brightly, it may not be the lamps or bulbs … it might be the lenses. “Every time you replace the bulb, you should pull the lens off and clean it,” advises Fischer.
When performing preventive maintenance on your exterior lighting, you should:
- Look for dim/dark areas around the building and in parking areas (take light level readings with a light meter).
- Identify lamps that are burned out and need to be replaced.
- Watch for flickering or diminished light output (which might signal that a new ballast is needed).
- Clean dirty lenses on fixtures, and look for missing screws and hardware.
- Check gaskets to see if they need to be replaced.
- Optimize lighting controls to make sure they’re functioning as needed.
Technology upgrades are also a crucial part of exterior lighting maintenance. “On the outside of buildings, we’re switching a lot of HID lights over to fluorescents,” says Fischer. “They’re much less expensive to operate, and they last for a very long time.” Although LEDs are another option, Fischer says the payback can be 10 years or longer, so owners aren’t always willing to invest in the technology.
